Great Graphic: Foreign-Owned U.S. Assets

 | Apr 23, 2013 01:56PM ET

This Great Graphic focuses on elements of the U.S. net international investment position. It was posted on Business Insider by Joe Wisenthal, who got it from Slate's Matt Yglesias who spotted it at the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Yeah, But...
It's interesting to note that although foreign investors own more American assets than Americans own foreign assets, the U.S. runs a consistent surplus on the investment-income account, which means that U.S. investments generate a larger stream of dividends, interest, royalty and licensing fees than it pays out.

Foreign investors own a little less than 6% of all U.S. assets and a little less than half of that is accounted for by Chinese investors. This includes the central bank's holdings of U.S. Treasuries.